Defining (and Refining) Your Strategy

Could your conversion from prospect to lead to opportunity be more efficient?

Do you have all the personnel you need? Is there hiring on the horizon?

Can you effectively measure your efforts throughout a customer’s lifecycle?

That last one is particularly important. If you can’t figure out what’s working (and how well), your strategy could be ideal but you’ll have a tough time proving it’s working.

Make sure you’ve got analytics touch points in place and that you’re equipped to act on the data you collect. It’s this commitment to ongoing improvement that separates the one time, flash in the pan successes from teams who consistently do great marketing for years on end.

Now that you understand your needs and have a plan for iterating on the first version of your B2B marketing strategy, let’s visit the buffet.

Choice #1: Content Marketing for Lead Generation

In fact, research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs indicated that an overwhelming majority — 85% — of B2B marketers identified lead generation as their most important content marketing goal for 2016.

Ebooks: As a way to educate potential leads, show off knowledge, and pull leads into the funnel, it’s hard to beat a well-designed ebook.

Webinars: Like ebooks, your webinars need to be value-driven in order to be effective. Answer questions, solve problems, and don’t make it about you or your product.

Live Events: Industry events are a great way to learn about your audience quickly and efficiently, and when you combine them with effective content they just get better.

Whitepapers and guides: No need to call them “whitepapers” if that is too stuffy for your audience. Just ensure that they’re designed to fit into the buying cycle and push readers on to the next action.

Case studies: These are great pieces for turning leads into paying customers. Make them client success stories, not shameless self promotion, and you’ll get more (and better qualified) leads.

Choice #2: Review Your Website with New Eyes

A company’s website was rated as the number one decision making touchpoint by B2B customers. Is yours pulling its weight?

One very easy way to find out if your site is doing its job is to conduct user tests.

Marketers (and any company employee) tend to get so accustomed to looking at a site that we don’t notice problems or areas for improvement. You’ll be amazed at the ideas you generate by having real people examine it with fresh eyes.

Similarly, consider continuously running split tests on your most valuable pages. By constantly making small adjustments and tracking their impact, you’ll be on a path to regular upticks in conversions that can really add up over time.

Whichever tactics you choose, just ensure that your website doesn’t become a neglected part of the marketing background. It’s a major B2B workhorse, and it deserves attention.

Choice #3: Catch the SEO Tiger by the Long Tail

It can be daunting (not to mention impossible) to rank a new site or page for short, high-volume terms like “running shoes.” But there’s a huge amount of power in longer search phrases that aren’t used as often.

What this means for your B2B SEO strategy is that as long as you understand your buyer personas and what problems they might be looking to solve via search engines, there are plenty of opportunities to get your website out in front of them.

Consider segmenting your keywords by persona rather than putting similar phrases together. This shift may be just what you need to reinvigorate your strategy.

Then, if you start to see increases in scores over time, you’ll have a solid measurable outcome even if you collect fewer hot leads from the event itself.

You can also opt for lower cost options like exclusive get togethers for existing customers, which can be a great excuse to invite prospective customers to listen to other people sing your product’s praises over crudités and cocktails.

Choice #5: Automate and Segment Your Email Marketing

B2B email marketing can no longer be confined to a monthly newsletter that you push out to every single contact in your database.

The future of email is rooted firmly in segmentation: creating smaller pieces of your list and providing emails that are tailored to their needs and interests, and smart automation, triggering sends based on relevant criteria.

You’re going to need some solid marketing automation software to make this work, but, used properly, the purchase can quickly pay for itself by shortening your sales cycle and increasing your retention rates.

Choice #6: Figure Out Social Media for B2B

Social media may never be the cash cow of leads in the B2B world, but when it comes to distribution, it’s proving to be effective for many teams.

Regalix’s research showed that 52% of marketers found it to be a good online distribution channel in 2015, with social coming in fourth place overall behind website, email, and organic search.

Consequently, 66% of B2B marketers plan to increase their social spend in 2016.

Marketing Strategy is a Work in Progress

It can sometimes feel like every other marketing team has chosen their buffet items and is off executing at scale and speed. But keep in mind that most organizations rate themselves as either “average” or “developing” when it comes to strategy development:

Start where you can, and make definite plans for continuous improvement.

Just as the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the marketing strategy of a thousand leads begins with a single tactic.

Andrea loves to dissect marketing buzzwords and fads looking for the pearls of wisdom at their cores. Her favorite topic is agile marketing, which she believes holds the key to a more fulfilling (and less stressful) marketing career for individuals and a more powerful marketing department for business.
When not scrutinizing the latest agile methodologies, Andrea can be found on the volleyball court, at the park with her two delightful kids, or baking “calorie-free” cookies.
Connect with her on Twitter @AndreaFryrear, or on LinkedIn.

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